


Another Day in the K-9 Unit

by terminallybored



Series: K-9 Unit [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Deputy Laura Hale, Gen, everyone loves dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 02:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terminallybored/pseuds/terminallybored
Summary: Laura likes to feel like she's in control of her life. Being an officer of the law really should make that easier, but not in the Beacon Hills K-9 unit.





	Another Day in the K-9 Unit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Laura Hale Appreciation Week  
> Day 4 Theme: Bickering Besties

Laura knows when she’s been beaten and she’s not too proud to admit it. That’s usually not the case. Usually there will be blood and pain and tears before there will be an admission of defeat. Everyone has their pressure points, though. 

She shoves open the heavy door to the kennel, making it bang into the wall behind it. This has the unintended (but possibly appropriate) effect of causing the trainees to all begin barking from the back room where the cages are. At her feet, Erica barks at her friends, pawing anxiously at the ground, tail up and wagging. Laura gives her a stern look and the German Shepherd puts her butt back on the ground and whines like the effort is killing her. 

“Oh my god, how can you resist that?” Stiles asks from behind the desk, tucking his highlighter behind his ear. “Look how hard she’s trying.”

“I’m not resisting. I’m just not heaping praise on her for a minimal display of manners.” Laura walks in and crosses her arms, stopping in front of the desk. “So. What is it this time?”

“What do you mean?” Stiles has a really efficient Innocent look, what with the large eyes and the long lashes. He knows exactly how to widen his eyes and look around like the answer is somewhere in the corner. Laura knows better, though. That angelic face belongs to a demon.

Erica whines piteously in the doorway and Laura sighs and relents. She’s not made of stone. “Erica, heel.” The dog stands and hurries inside, sitting at Laura’s feet again. Her tail wags so hard that her butt wiggles back and forth.

“She likes you.” Stiles leans over the edge of the desk so he can see the dog. “Don’t you? You’re trying to impress Laura even though you hear all your buddies.”

“She stinks.”

Stiles acts aghast, putting a hand over his heart like he’s personally wounded. “Deputy Hale!”

“You know what I mean!” Laura sags against the counter in defeat. “Seriously, what did I do, Stiles? She’s been fine on every training run and as soon as she’s set to ride with me, she has gas!” And it’s been going on for a solid week, so clearly Stiles is miffed to a pretty high degree about… whatever she did. 

Stiles gives her a long and fairly chilly look. Then he crosses his arms and looks at the wall. “You called me the resident dog walker.”

“I did?” Laura blinks. Stiles might just be a college intern, but he’s still a member of the K-9 training unit on his school breaks. She wouldn’t call him a dog walker around… “Wait, you mean when Derek was here?”

Stiles just scrunches his nose up and crosses his arms tighter. 

“Come on, Stiles, I was teasing. And it was only to my brother, no one else heard it.”

“Oh, so I only sound useless to one person.”

Laura props her chin on the heel of her hand. “So you’re punishing me with dog farts over one thing I said to my brother? Haven’t other people said way worse?” She’s pretty sure Davidson has called Stiles ‘spastic’ more than once and so far she hasn’t heard about one of the dogs peeing on him yet (though the Sheriff does give him the shit work like fielding questions at town hall meetings whenever he hears him). 

“I guess.” Stiles shrugs, petulant, and reaches down to rub between Erica’s ears. She immediately attacks his hand with kisses.

Laura watches her trainee break rank immediately and turn right back into a puppy under Stiles’ hand. “Okay, fine. Doesn’t matter why it bothers you. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or make you sound useless.” 

“I’ll stop giving her broccoli before she rides with you,” Stiles says, relenting. 

Laura sighs, relief easing the tension in the nape of her neck. “Oh my god, thank you. Next time Derek is around, I’ll even introduce you properly, okay?”

“No!” Stiles looks as startled as Laura feels by how suddenly the word escapes. “Uh… nah. Nah, it’s cool.”

Laura frowns. “Are you sure?”

“Totally sure.” Stiles grabs a leash from the desk and comes around to clip it on Erica’s collar. “Come on, cutie. I’ll let you stop and see Boyd and tell him all about your day.” 

Laura is left in the front room alone while Stiles vanishes into the kennel room, carrying on a full conversation with the dog.

**~~~**

“What did you do?” Laura asks when Stiles sets down a doughnut on her desk.

“What? I can’t just bring my favorite deputy a snack?”

Laura raises her eyebrows and looks pointedly at the box in Stiles’ hand, marked ‘For Deputy Hale’ in black marker. “You brought me a dozen of them, apparently.”

“I can’t bring my favorite deputy a dozen snacks?”

“And you brought me coffee. Fancy coffee.” The whipped cream is oozing over the side of the cup and pooling on her desk and it smells, admittedly, incredible. Like caramel and heaven. 

“I can’t bring my favorite deputy-”

“Stiles.”

Stiles sighs and sets the box down. “Okay, fine. I need you to help an orphan in need.”

“I get the feeling you’re overselling this to appeal to my good nature,” Laura says, lifting the lid on the box. Full dozen assorted. Stiles is going all out. 

“I really don’t even have to.” Stiles leans down and when he stands back up, there’s a golden German Shepherd mix in his arms. Mixed with what, Laura isn’t sure, but his fur is longish and kind of curly. “He’s so sweet that he sells himself. This is Isaac.”

“You’re trying to pawn off a puppy on me?” Laura refuses to let herself even look at the dog because all puppies are cute and Stiles is absolutely not going to pull a fast one on her. “What’s wrong with him? Did he flunk out of the program?”

Stiles toys with one of the dog’s ears and Isaac sniffs in the general direction of the doughnut box. “He’s not a failure, he just… he’s a little too anti-social for police work. Not a lot of interest in people and stuff… the usual bullshit. He’s still a super awesome dog, though.”

“Stiles,” Laura sighs. “You know how often I’m here. What am I going to do with a dog?”

“Laura, I brought you coffee since you forgot-” Derek makes it as far as the doorway with a steel thermos in his hand, then pauses, raising an eyebrow at her desk. “Or you could have a milkshake instead?”

“Leave my fancy coffee alone,” Laura huffs. 

“You’re the dog walker, right?” Derek asks as he sets the thermos on the desk, and Laura could die. _That’s_ going to be the thing Derek remembers, of everything she tells him? Stiles just kind of turns a little pink, which makes her feel worse. Great, now she has to turn down his dog and she’s embarrassed him.

“No, he’s not the dog walker. He’s a trainer in the K-9 unit,” she says quickly. “This is-”

“I’m Stiles and this is Isaac!” Stiles says, probably with more force than necessary. “He’s a good dog. He just doesn’t like people. Which doesn’t make him bad it just makes him a bad fit for a police dog because they need certain social skills. But we think he might have gotten mistreated either during transport or something. He would really love Laura but she’s kind of my dad’s best deputy so she’s always here.”

“Stiles,” Laura says, nudging him, because Stiles is doing that thing where he keeps talking like that will somehow fix a nervous situation. 

“I’ll take him.” Derek holds his hands out, not bothered in the least that Isaac side-eyes him and makes an unimpressed huffing sound through his nose. “Give him here.”

“Wait, you will?” Stiles asks.

“You will?” Laura repeats.

Derek shrugs. “I like dogs. And I don't like other people much, so we'll be fine.”

Stiles holds the puppy out and lets him sniff at Derek. “He’s still a good dog,” he repeats. 

“I heard you.” Derek takes him. “Guess I’ll stop by the kennel later for… papers? Do I need papers or something?”

“Yes!” Stiles says immediately, latching onto something he can talk about without stammering. “Papers. Uh… I’ll get you his papers. And some of his food. And he has a blanket in his kennel and-”

“Right.” Derek sets the dog down and picks up his leash. “I’ll come by later, dog walker.”

Stiles watches him go, Isaac following him out on the leash. “Stiles!” he calls belatedly. 

“Stiles… why did my brother just adopt a dog?” Laura asks, still not sure what happened. 

“Uh… I dunno.” Stiles shrugs. “…Will you give Derek my number? In case he needs help with Isaac, I mean. Obviously.” Stiles shifts from one foot to the other. “Yeah. You should do that. I’m gonna go get Isaac’s papers.”

Laura watches Stiles practically flee from the room and she sits at her desk. Now she has two cups of coffee, a dog for a nephew, and she’s pretty sure she’s about to give her brother the phone number of his future boyfriend. She’s still not sure what the hell happened.


End file.
